Beauty & lifestyle

As I mentioned in my last post, I just got back from Turkey which is not only fantastic for its culture and food but also shopping 🙂 Before I left for my trip I did do some research on the local brands and best places to buy makeup and skincare items. Today I will share with you a couple of items I picked up while on holiday there and hopefully this will help you plan your shopping if you happen to be travelling to Turkey soon!

Makeup haul from Turkey!

First, I’ll talk about the makeup items! I picked up most of these items from a drugstore in Turkey called Gratis. Its very easy to spot in the main shopping street in Istanbul. When I went many of the items were out of stock unfortunately but I still managed to grab a few things!

1. Cindy Lou Manizer

Okay, so this isn’t exactly a Turkish brand but they were having a 40% off sale on the Balm products and I had to pick this up since the after sale price translated to 10 USD !! Score! 😀 I already have the Mary Lou Manizer and really enjoy it, but after using this one a couple of times I think I prefer this since it looks more natural on my skin tone. More on that in a review coming soon!!

2. Essence Lipliner in Satin Mauve

I have heard people talk so much about these and with good reason! They are super creamy and feel amazing on the lips. Again the price tag made me buy it 😉

3. Essence blush up in Heatwave

This is such a gorgeous orange peach-pink ombre blush! I have not seen these in the US so I picked it up. I have used it a couple of times and so far its been great!

4. Eklips natural fan brush

I think this is an in house brand of Gratis and its supposed to be a dupe for ecotools? It is eco friendly and cruelty free. It was around 1 USD and for that price it works amazingly well! I used it to apply highlighter on my cheek bones and it does a beautiful job. After trying this out, I really wanted to pick up some more brushes from the brand but sadly I didn’t have time to go back to Gratis 😦 If you plan on visiting Turkey do check out this line of brushes!

5. Golden Rose Velvet matte lipstick in number 19

Golden Rose is a Turkish brand and I went to their main store in Istanbul. Before I left for Turkey I checked out Instagram posts by Turkish beauty bloggers to get an idea of the local makeup scene 😉 (I know I know..I sound like I have a makeup addiction problem!) and this was one of the lipsticks that was constantly praised! This cost me around 6 USD and the texture of the lipstick is amazing! Its so creamy and comfortable on the lips..I’ll probably review it soon if your curious about swatches 🙂 The guy who helped me out in the store said that a lot of the shades are dupes for MAC lipsticks. I actually have only 1 limited edition MAC lipstick so I can’t vouch for it but I do like the shade I picked out!

6. Pastel nail polish in number 108?

I saw tons of nail polish in Turkey for really cheap prices but eventually I picked up only this one since I don’t have this color in my collection. The shade has no name but I think its number 108..again not sure! I have used this once and the quality is really good..no chipping for more than a week 🙂 I think the brand Pastel and even Golden Rose is available in some European countries. The shade 108 looks perfect for summer, don’t you think!

7. Golden Rose matt top coat

I bought this on a whim and its actually quite cool to use! I can see myself using this for nail art! I tried it out once with one of my OPI nail polishes and it really converted the shade into a matt one when I used this as a top coat. It was really cheap and so I thought it might be gimicky, but it works !

This post got so long I decided to split it into 2 parts! I will talk about some skincare items I got from Turkey in part 2. Hope you’ll enjoyed taking a peak into the makeup items I picked up! Stay tuned for part 2 coming soon!